Dreaming the Welfare-State: Indian Women-Studies-Movement, Neoliberalism and Feminist Future

42 | 2020

Cheshta Arora

Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), India / School of Social Sciences, National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS), India
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2470-7783

Through an account of the history of women-studies-movements in India, the paper aims to interrogate the ‘temporality’ of feminist response to the neoliberal reality. By juxtaposing two dominant narratives situated differently, the paper appeals for a reevaluation of contemporary feminist knowledges that bemoan the loss of ‘welfare state’ and collective political struggles. Through a critical account of women-studies-movements in India, and the inability of their dominant stories to respond to the current conundrums of responding to the ‘neoliberal’ subject, the paper argues that it is not just the neoliberal reality which is hegemonic and all too powerful, but also the feminist stories that constitute it.

Keywords

neoliberalism, feminist movement, sexual difference, welfare state

DOI: https://doi.org/10.22355/exaequo.2020.42.03
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